Spirits and Letters

Thomas G. Kirsch is Lecturer at the Department of Anthropology at Goldsmiths College, University of London. Between 1993 and 2001, he conducted extensive ethnographic fieldwork in Zambia. He has published a book on African Christianity in Zambia and articles in some of the major refereed journals for anthropology and sociology in Germany. Other articles were published in the journals American Anthropologist (2004), Visual Anthropology (2006) and American Ethnologist (2007).

• List of Illustrations Acknowledgements Notes on Language Introduction Charisma - Institution Charisma/Spirit/Orality - Institution/Letter/Literacy African Literate Religion 'Spirit' and 'Letter' in African Christianity Examining Literacy Practices The Fieldwork Outline of the Book PART I: HISTORIES AND ETHNOGRAPHIES Chapter 1. Colonial Literacies Mission, School and Printing Press Steps towards Secularization Counterforce in Writing What is a School? Resistance and Non-religious Literacies Colonial Bureaucracy Evangelists as Administrators Chapter 2. Passages, Configurations, Traces At the Edge of the Road On the Road Early Evangelisations Christianity in the 1990s Religious Intersections Chapter 3. Schooled Literacy, Schooled Religion Enrolment in School After the Ringing of the Bell Recitations of Syllabi Experiences with Mission Schools Contemporary Religious Education PART II: LITERATE RELIGION Chapter 4. Literate Cultures in a Material World The Bible as an Everyday Object Literacy in Times of Paper Shortage Getting Hold of Christian Publications Publications as Property Chapter 5. Indices to the Scriptural Bible Talks Programmatic Visibility References to the Book Chapter 6. The Fringes of Christianity Blurrings and Criteria Turning Letters Upside Down Chapter 7. Thoughts about 'Religions of the Book' Book People Scriptural Inerrancy and Authority Canonization and the Bridging of Realms PART III: WAYS OF READING Chapter 8. Texts, Readers, Spirit Bibles, Versions, Origins Pamphlets and Eclecticism Selections and Combinations Private Readings, Implicit Influences Bible Studies Chapter 9. Evanescence and the Necessity of Intermediation The Impossibility of Storing the Holy Spirit Objects, Bodies and Spiritual Evanescence Chapter 10. Setting Texts in Motion Deciphering and Preaching Sediments of the Spirit Chapter 11. Missions in Writing Literacy Networking The Jehovah's Witnesses: Questions and Answers The New Apostolic Church: Mediation via Circulars Supplements as 'Obligatory Passage Points' Enablement through Denominational Publications Chapter 12. Enablements to Literacy Rumination and Scholarship Scripture and Enablement Enabling Supplements PART IV: BUREAUCRACY IN THE PENTECOSTAL-CHARISMATIC MODE Chapter 13. Offices and the Dispersion of Charisma Bureaucracy as Social Practice Organizational Formalization as a Founding Myth Dispersing Charisma, Allocating Offices Charisma, Hierarchies, Variations Ignorance and Mutual Recognition Chapter 14. Positions of Writers, Positions in Writings Certifications of Authority God's Secretaries Identifications and Registries Fixing Polyvalent Rites of Passage Portrayals of the Momentary Chapter 15. Outlines for the Future, Documents of the Immediate Agendas as Revelations Reports of the Unpredictable Agendas, Reports, and the Holy Spirit Re-spiritualizing Bureaucracy Chapter 16. Bureaucracy In-Between Flows and Facades African Christianity and the State Formalizing Social Relations Imagining the State Legacies and Isomorphism Presentations and Concealments Bureaucracy as Pentecostal-charismatic Empowerment Chapter 17. Epilogue Bibliography Index

"Developing new theoretical perspectives out of sensitive historical and ethnographic research on practices of reading and writing in the Spirit Apostolic Church, this well written and accessible study offers anthropology at its best. Cautioning against simplistic understandings of literacy and textuality that still underpin much work on Christianity, his work offers a substantial intervention into broader debates about religion, media and materiality." * Professor Birgit Meyer, Faculty of Social Sciences, Vrije Universiteit "the primary aim of the author lies...in challenging the presuppositions made in the study of African religion - and in this he has admirably succeeded" * H-Net Reviews - Kirsch - provides an excellent introduction, contextualizing his material and his aim of explaining the relationship between 'charisma' and 'institution' in the Spirit Apostolic Church.A" * Choice "The examination of literacy practices presented in this book enables - and hopefully will engender - much thought in a variety of ethnographic domains." * Ethos [The author] demonstrates in this book an extraordinary command of several scholarly literatures and takes up questions that have vexed the social sciences since at least the time of Max Weber. In particular, Kirsch wishes to understand how something as fundamental to the 'religions of the Book' as literacy could be so often overlooked in current anthropological discussions of Christianity in favor of electronic and other media. Kirsch has produced an impressive monograph here, one that ought to be read by Africanist anthropologists, religious studies scholars and by others interested in understanding the meaningful qualities of literacy for all 'peoples of the Book'.A" * Journal of Religion in Africa